The week of the 12th, although short was full of fun and surprises. The three day weeks can be a bit more hectic than the normal weeks, as we try to fit everything in. On Monday I taught the children the new words, and tried to fit Show & Tell in. I managed to get everyone in, but it left only a short time in the mornings for an introduction to new ideas like how to make “I am / I’m “sentences. We had some work on the alphabet, and learned how to thank and be thanked by people.

During P.E. we had basketball dribbling skills, where I had the students bouncing balls and jogging. I used our new footballs for this, as we have 25 of them, enough for each student to have a ball. Footballs don’t bounce as easily as Basketballs do, but they suit our purpose just fine. We continued this during the last week and added in bounce passing for the student to practice bouncing the ball back and forth to each other.

In science, we discussed the Energy of Light, and how to stop light. We did experiments with using different materials to change the light or stop it altogether dung the following week.

We learned how to make some basic strokes in calligraphy class, where I was able to test out a couple of my own strokes to the amusement of the students and Mr. Liu. Students are getting used to how to properly hold pencils and paper, which is a skill most of us don’t think about anymore, we just do it. But when your 6 years old, learning to write in any language, these things don’t come naturally to all.

In Baseball class the student got to do some batting practice, along with some base running. Everyone had a turn, including me. It was a lot of fun.

In Art class on the 13^th the children made Lanterns for their Lantern Festival. I didn’t get to see these until they were completed, but they looked lovely.

On Wednesday the 14^th, the children got to wear Red, Orange, and Brown colors instead of their Uniform. This was to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival, They also got to make mooncakes! I can say I had never made mooncakes before that day, it was a lot of fun.

No matter how much fun that week was this past week made me more excited. This week, our English Library arrived for the back of the room, the children immediately took a liking to the books I chose, and spent time sharing stories with each other. They were so enthusiastic about the books, I had to create a class job for 2 students each do to tidy the class library, because the books would get so messed up, they would end up on the floor.

And speaking of jobs, I posted some class job signs on the front of the class, alternating the student names each day. They include so far: fetching the Yogurt for the class break, tidying the library, tidying the art section of the room, and cleaning the board. I didn’t imagine I’d have to put names on these, but we would actually have student argue over the right to do these jobs during the break time before, so I had to assign them just to keep the peace.

This week, the children start using their tablet computers to reinforce classes, they have only had the one class with them so far, but we talked about basic safety, and usage manners. They got to look over the programs, I need to set up each and every tablet on the classroom Wi-Fi next week. I had spent about 2 weeks installing the programs, but since I did it during the children’s other class periods they all have the office Wi-Fi set up. I will make available all the programs the children use for the parents to install for practice at home, if each family is interested.

We learned about how different people come from different places, and that different is not just normal, but good for the world. We talked about the countries we had been to, or are from, and colored flags from some of these countries, and areas.

We have had not 1 but two field trips. Thursday we went to Tiananmen Square, as an introduction to Chinese culture and Community for Social Studies class. We had a good time, if tiring. There was a lot of tourists there that day, both Chinese and foreign. The foreign tourists spoke to the kids and took pictures, the Chinese tourists, just took pictures. We had a lot of people ask how old the class was. And I tried to convince the student that my home was in the Forbidden City, but of course they were too smart for that.

Friday we went to learn about organic farming, and agriculture. We took a tour of a farm, just outside the city, they showed us how they grow the fruit and vegetables without chemicals. They let the children pick carrots, peanuts, pears, and some leafy vegetables, that I’m not sure of the English name for. Then the children got to play on an old style wooden playground. It was a lot of fun.